In light of that recent Randy Newman post I did this definitely caught my eye; a funny reaction to Usain Bolt’s mind-boggling 100m dash on Saturday called Short people got no reason to live:
The 60-yard Procrustean Cut-Down was the sole event we Middle Men could hope to win. But after Usain Bolt’s world-record run in the 100 meters on Saturday night, our last undersized crutch has disappeared forever. There is now no reason for anyone inhabiting the center of the bell curve to live. A hideous future is upon us, in which a race of enormous, gloating men, now the totally dominant species on Planet Earth, police the rest of us like angry dinosaurs, exacting a terrible revenge upon anyone who ever challenged their vertical hegemony.
I failed to mention this yesterday when writing about the Korea win over Japan and Jang Mi-ran’s weightlifting world record. I saw Bolt on replay toward the end of the night and assumed it was the beer talking.
Here’s another article from the San Francisco Chronicle speculating on how Bolt’s run might have just changed the world of sprinting forever.
2 responses so far ↓
1 EW // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:45 am
The Washington Post did a pretty nice job with Bolt, as well, though that Salon article is great.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081601933.html
2 Simon Currie // Aug 18, 2008 at 10:21 pm
I liked this paragraph from the Salon article too:
“Bolt’s race was one of the freakiest events in the history not just of the Olympics, but of track and field. The 6′5″ Jamaican simply redefined speed. Not only did he destroy one of the fastest fields in Olympic history and shatter his own world record, he did it with a gut stuffed full of Chicken McNuggets, with one shoe untied, and while signing autographs, blowing kisses and taking a nap during the last 20 meters of the race. As the great retired Trinidadian sprinter Ato Boldon, winner of four Olympic medals, said during NBC’s broadcast, “This has never been seen before in Olympic history.”"
I’ve downloaded the race, and damn, every time I see it repeated in slomo it looks even more amazing. What was up with the untied shoe lace anyways!?
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